The Nation Newspaper

Category: Maritime

  • How to improve cargo clearance

    How to improve cargo clearance

    The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) is to partner the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) to boost exportation.

    Its Executive Secretary, Mr Hassan Bello, told The Nation that the NEPC is addressing some of the issues affecting exportation. He said the discussions have been yielding fruitful results.

    The NSC boss also commended terminal operators for boosting service delivery at the nation’s seaports, adding that to encourage exportation as a source of diversification of the economy, the issue of finance or access to credit by exporters has been discussed.

    “We must have adequate infrastructure to move the exportable commodities to the ports. We must have the linkages, weighbridges and consolidation centres so that the products are processed and transported effortlessly to the seaports,” he said.

    He urged all government agencies operating at the ports to improve on their processes for efficient cargo clearance. “What the NSC is saying is that our ports must be efficient. Therefore, all agencies operating in the ports including the Nigeria Customs Service, Plant Quarantine and others must up their game.

    “Electronic interface should be encouraged in our ports, while appropriate technology must be embraced by all the agencies and institutions operating in the ports. If all these are put in place, there will be transparency, efficiency and competiveness,” Bello said.

  • NPA seeks export promotion to diversify economy

    The Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Malam Habib Abdullahi, has called for the promotion of exportation of agro-allied products to boost the economy.

    He said he was angry that about 90 per cent of container traffic left the ports empty.

    The NPA boss urged the public and private sectors to support the governments efforts to diversify the economy.

    X-raying the ports’ first quarter operations, he said maritime activities dropped compared with the same period last year.

    He said: “The commodity analysis revealed that though all cargo types declined during the period under review, however, containers and general cargo traffic contributed significantly to the overall drop in cargo throughput.

    “There is an urgent need to complement the efforts of the NPA’s massive investments in infrastructural renewal and automation of our port operations, by generating enough export cargo to make up for the shortfall of imported cargo in our ports.’’

    The NPA, he said, has met with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and Abuja Commodities & Exchange Commission on the promotion of solid minerals and agro-allied products to boost the economy.

    The Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development and Nigerian Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACIMA), he said, had also briefed.

    “The interactive sessions could be said to be productive, especially in  information sharing and data exchange,” Abdullahi said.

    NPA’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Captain. Iheanacho Ebubeogu, said 1,131 ocean-going vessels and crude oil tankers with a total Gross Tonnage (GT) of 59.4 million called at the ports between January and March.

    “In the period under review, Lagos Port Complex (LPC) recorded a Gross Tonnage of 8.1 million, showing a decrease of 11.5 per cent from 9.2 million tonnes achieved in 2015.

    “A total of 296 vessels were handled in the period under review at the LPC. Tin Can Island Port handled a total Gross Tonnage of 11.8 million, showing a decline of 1.2 per cent compared to Gross Tonnage of 12.2 million achieved in the corresponding quarter of 2015.

    “A total of 417 vessels were handled at the Tin-Can Port in the period under review. Calabar Port complex handled a total Gross Tonnage of 776,718, showing a decline of 15.4 per cent from 918, 237 gross tonnage recorded in 2015. A total of 46 vessels were handled in Calabar port this same period,’’ he said.

  • Shippers Council insists on 48-hour cargo clearance

    Shippers Council insists on 48-hour cargo clearance

    To ensure that the ports are not congested, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) is insisting on 48-hour clearance of goods.

    At a meeting with terminal operators, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) officers and other stakeholders, NSC Executive Secretary Hassan Bello argued that meeting the cargo clearance deadline was the only way to free the ports.

    Bello is also seeking an amendment of the NSC Act to strengthen its control of traffic, rates and related economic charges at the ports.

    “The Act establishing the NSC to needs to be amended by the National Assembly to enable “NSC enforce fair trade practices to protect rights and balance interest of providers and users of ports services as it is required to do in Section 3 of its establishment Act”, Bello said when contacted.

    According to him, the council’s aim is to provide platforms for cargo clearance to make the ports more efficient.

    He urged stakeholders to resolve the challenges of quick cargo clearance, saying: “The idea is that the NSC is the referee in this friendly contest, and the more we interact with the service providers and government agencies, the better understanding we will get.”

    The council, he said, is focusing on trade facilitation and quick cargo clearance to boost government revenue.

    Bello said: “We need automation in our ports instead of doing things manually. We need to streamline these processes and develop standard operating procedures, and check the presence of government agencies at the ports on what they are doing, and the Customs to also up their game in automation.

    “They have led the way, but we need other stakeholders to come and buy in. So, we are doing a lot of consultations while we supervise and moderate. Customs has been leading in so many areas of what our ultimate aim is, which is automation, providing platforms for cargo clearance so that our ports will become efficient.

    “The trade facilitation issue they have pioneered is something very commendable and it is a starting point.”

    He suggested the streamlining of cargo clearance procedures to ensure the ports are more competitive with others in West and Central.

    “Nigerians ports are in competition with other ports within the sub-region, so we have to streamline our clearance procedures – the way we do business so that we attract more cargoes to Nigerian ports.”

    “We need to develop standard operating procedures. We need quality services to ensure that there is a balance in relationship between service providers and users in the industry,” he said.

  • ‘Reduce cost of doing business at ports’

    ‘Reduce cost of doing business at ports’

    The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hammed Ibrahim Ali (rtd), has been urged to reduce the cost of doing business at the ports.

    Delivering a paper titled: “Making the Nigerian ports attractive for business”, at a forum organised by a group, the Tokunbo Vehicles Importers (TVI), a maritime lawyer and don, Mr Dipo Alaka, said Nigeria should implement the NCS Act as one of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) member-countries

    He urged the NCS to repeal the benchmark method of valuation and the arbitrary method used for calculating import duty to attract more business.

    Alaka said the arbitrary method contravenes Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), of which Nigeria is a signatory.

    He said the Customs and Excise Management (Amendment) Act No. 20 of 2003, provides that duty should be determined sequentially on transaction, identical, to similar value, computed, deductive and fall back methods.

    “The simple explanation of the provisions of Act No. 20 of 2003 is that duty on imported goods shall be based on value stated by the seller on the seller’s invoice, and such invoice is usually authenticated by the exporting countries’ chambers of commerce. This is the meaning of method one,” he said.

    Where there is a doubt about the value stated on the seller’s invoice, the duty, he said, could be determined by the value of identical goods from the same country of import and of the same quantity within a maximum time lag of three months.

    This sequential method, Alaka said, should continue until the last method is attained. He wondered why the NCS uses what the “Benchmark method of valuation”  to determine the duty on such import.

    He said: “All that was done in many cases was to allot particular type of import of particular packing unit without reference to the invoice value of the seller from the country of import.

    “So, every container is assessed at the same value or the Customs man may just apply his discretion as to what he feels the value of a particular import should be and then base the duty assessment on that discretion value.”

    This valuation method, he said, “adds to the high cost of doing business in our port’’.

    The lawyer blamed the Customs for frustrating the “genuine complaints of over-assessment in matters of valuation”, describing it as a denial of justice to port users.

    According to him, Paragraph 13 of the 1st Schedule to, Act No. 20, 2003 , which makes the Comptroller-General of Customs a semi-final authority to adjudicate on disagreements on valuation before a dissatisfied party goes to court. It envisages that disagreement over assessment of duty is a civil dispute that should be settled amicably.

    The lawyer regretted that the Customs was frustrating the procedure.

    “Once an assessment is done, it is taken it or leave. All forms of chicanery would be employed to frustrate genuine complaints of over assessment to duty, beginning from delay in attending to the complaint, to subtle threat of declaring the affected overtime cargo, with the unpleasant consequence of being lost to the government,” he added.

  • NPA to repair Tin Can road

    The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has awarded the contract for the rehabilitation of the Tin-Can Port access road to a Chinese firm, The Nation has learnt.

    The firm has been mobilised for the job. But the contractor is yet to move to site because of logistics.

    Residents of Apapa, terminal operators, motorists, commuters, truck drivers and port users told The Nation last weekend that the road harbours criminals at night. They urged the Federal Government to award the contract for the repair.

    A senior official of a terminal said the road has caused untold hardship to importers, commuters, port users, truck drivers and motorists.

    The road, the official said, deserves the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola and his counterpart in the Ministry of Transport Rotimi Amaechi, as over $5 billion investments at the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports, are being threatened by the bad road.

    He noted that total reconstruction of the road would stem criminalities, reduce revenue losses and environmental degradation in and around the ports.

    Some importers suggested that the road could be done under a Public- Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement to take the ports out of the woods.

    When The Nation visited the area at the weekend, more than 30 potholes were in front of the Tin-Can Island Port, which the NPA contractor must attend to.

    Investigation revealed that about seven out of 10 port users  fear falling victim to criminals when departing the port at night, while some claimed to have been attacked in the last two months.

    Mr. Samson Adetowubo, from Ikorodu axis, whose car was vandalised while leaving the port, said the road is insecure at night, warning other port users and commuters to be vigilant and not to have a false sense of security if they have any reason to follow the road to Mile 2 or Apapa after 7p.m.

    “Street urchins popularly called Area Boys have taken over the failed section of the road in front of Tin-Can Port. They extort motorists, truck drivers in the day and attack innocent citizens at night.

    “I am happy that many of you journalists were here when the Senate Committee on Marine Transport visited the port. The Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi also visited the same port. But it is a pity that despite their visit, nothing has been done to ameliorate the sufferings of port users and commuters. The road is worse than the way they met it because of the rain.”

  • NIMASA collaborates with stakeholders

    The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) will collaborate with stakeholders to unlock opportunities in the sector, its Director-General, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, hass said.

    He made the pledge when the Acting Chinese Consul-General, Mr. Li Yong, visited him in his office.

    Peterside said cooperation among South countries will drive emerging economies.

    He praised the Chinese Government for strengthening the Nigerian-China relationship, citing some major projects across the country to buttress his point.

    He urged the Chinese Government to extend the partnership to the sector, adding that it is critical to the growth of the African economy.

    His words: “The maritime sector holds the key to unlocking the opportunities of the sector in the whole of Africa because of our strategic location, population and volume of trade. Therefore, if anyone wants to do business in Africa, Nigeria is the place of choice.”

    Peterside said NIMASA was willing to partner the Chinese Maritime Administration in ship breaking and recycling, on-board training for cadets as well as technical support.

    Yong said he was happy with the China-Nigerian relationship and that the Chinese Central Government was willing to partner with Nigeria in technological advancement and information sharing.

    The Chinese envoy also expressed his government’s determination to support Nigeria in the fight against piracy and other criminalities at sea.

    Peterside advocated local and international collaboration for the actualisation of the potential of the   industry since he assumed office.

  • Why we seize cleared goods, by Customs

    Why we seize cleared goods, by Customs

    ·• Importers, drivers query ‘second clearing’

    Is the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone ‘A’, Ikeja right in intercepting trucks cleared at the Tin Can Port by other Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) officers?

    Importers and truck drivers are accusing the FOU officials of “extortion” and “second clearing”; but the FOU insists that it is doing its job.

    “If we get information that there was manipulation in the document presented for the release of the cargo from the port, our officers will go there and intercept the item and the affected officer will be asked to report to FOU and subsequently to the Customs Headquarters in Abuja,” FOU Public Relation Officer (PRO) Uche Ejesieme said.

    The drivers alleged that the FOU officers story on the bridge about two metres from the port and stop them for another clearance.

    Some of the officers, they claimed, demand between N50,000 and N100,000 and, at times, more before allowing them to go.

    Last Friday, about 20 officers of the FOU were on  the bridge, stopping container-laden trucks just released from the port.

    The importers and drivers appealed to the Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi; his Finance counterpart, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and the Customs Comptroller-General (CCG) Col Ahmeed Ali to call the FOU officers to order.

    In 2011, The Nation learnt that Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi ordered FOU operatives, who mount roadblocks and impound cleared containers, off the road.

    A senior manager of a terminal at the port, who pleaded not to be named, said the FOU officers have no right to seize containers on the bridge.

    Ha said:“What are they doing on the Coconut Bus Stop bridge? The bridge leads to the port and it is about two metres away from the port. If the FOU officers are interested in the cargo clearance procedure, I think they should be allowed to come inside the port instead of killing the trade facilitation programme of the Federal Government and causing unnecessary gridlock on the road.

    “It is a pity that these are officers the nation expects to go into the bush and creeks to combat smuggling, harassing innocent and law-abiding importers and truck drivers on the road. This is happening in the day time and the Customs leadership is yet to call them to order. If there is a problem with what the truck drivers took from the port to the main road, who do we blame? Who is responsible for the release of cargo from the port? Is it not Customs? Is it because of their own negligence and inefficiency that the rest of us would not be allowed to carry on with our businesses?

    He added: “Customs said the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) was introduced to make cargo clearance easy from the port, but what we are seeing on this road daily is not what we expected from the scheme. We had hoped that since Customs has taken over all aspects of cargo clearance, the issues of falsified documents, under declaration, over invoicing and other import related problems, would be resolved when the goods are still inside the ports. This is an aspect of trade facilitation the Customs boss must address.”

    A Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) security officer, who was at the scene, said they had in the past advised the Customs officers to map out strategies to ensure that only certified goods are allowed to leave the ports. He wondered why a Customs officer would release a cargo from the port only for another to intercept it in front of the same port.

    “Who released the goods? Why must a Customs officer release the cargo from the port in broad day light and another officer would say the owner of the goods or the truck driver has questions to answer? Why? It shows that the level of trust and synergy among the Customs officers have degenerated and there is nobody in control. Therefore, there is need for President Buhari, the Ministers of Transport and Finance to address the problem,” the security officer said.

    A clearing agent, Mr Kola Adepegba, accused the officers of violating the ban on hinterland patrol because of what they intend to gain from it.

    He said if an importer disobeys any law, he should be checked by the superior mechanism put in place by the Customs from taking the goods out of the port.

    Adepegba said: “Those responsible for the release of the intercepted goods must also be punished because it shows that some people somewhere are not doing what they are supposed to do, and that is why we have this problem on the road.

    Describing the allegations as untrue Ejesieme said the unit’s operation was more of intelligence-driven, adding that its operatives could only impound containers that were wrongly released from the ports.

    FOU officers, Ejesieme said, have the power to intercept any container that flouts the government’s fiscal policy.

    He said: “FOU is an enforcement unit of the Nigeria Customs Service and our job is to complement the efforts of every Customs command in the zone.”

    The motive, he said, was to ensure that no importer or clearing agent succeeded in shortchanging the government.

    He appealed to Nigerians to give the unit information that could lead to the arrest of fraudulent importers.

  • Shippers Council insists on 48-hour cargo clearance

    Shippers Council insists on 48-hour cargo clearance

    To ensure that the ports are not congested, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) is insisting on 48-hour clearance of goods.

    At a meeting with terminal operators, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) officers and other stakeholders, NSC Executive Secretary Hassan Bello argued that meeting the cargo clearance deadline was the only way to free the ports.

    Bello is also seeking an amendment of the NSC Act to strengthen its control of traffic, rates and related economic charges at the ports.

    “The Act establishing the NSC needs to be amended by the National Assembly to enable “NSC enforce fair trade practices to protect rights and balance interest of providers and users of ports services as it is required to do in Section 3 of its establishment Act”, Bello said when contacted.

    According to him, the councils’ aim is to provide platforms for cargo clearance to make the ports more efficient.

    He urged stakeholders to resolve the challenges of quick cargo clearance, saying: “The idea is that the NSC is the referee in this friendly contest, and the more we interact with the service providers and government agencies, the better understanding we will get.”

    The council, he said, is focusing on trade facilitation and quick cargo clearance to boost government revenue.

    Bello said: “We need automation in our ports instead of doing things manually. We need to streamline these processes and develop standard operating procedures, and check the presence of government agencies at the ports on what they are doing and the Customs to also up their game in automation.

    “They have led the way, but we need other stakeholders to come and buy in. So, we are doing a lot of consultations while we supervise and moderate. Customs has been leading in so many areas of what our ultimate aim is, which is automation, providing platforms for cargo clearance so that our ports will become efficient.

    “The trade facilitation issue they have pioneered is something very commendable and it is a starting point.”

    He suggested the streamlining of cargo clearance procedures to ensure the ports are more competitive with others in West and Central.

    “Nigerians ports are in competition with other ports within the sub-region, so we have to streamline our clearance procedures – the way we do business so that we attract more cargoes to Nigerian ports.”

    “We need to develop standard operating procedures. We need quality services to ensure that there is a balance in relationship between service providers and users in the industry,” he said.

  • How to reduce cost at ports, by lawyer

    The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hammed Ibrahim Ali (rtd), has been urged to reduce the cost of doing business at the ports.

    Delivering a paper titled: “Making the Nigerian ports attractive for business”, at a forum organised by a group, the Tokunbo Vehicles Importers (TVI), a maritime lawyer and don, Mr Dipo Alaka, said Nigeria must implement the NCS Act in order to feature among World Trade Organisation (WTO) member-countries

    He urged the NCS to repeal the benchmark method of valuation and arbitrary method of calculating duty payable on imports to attract more business.

    Alaka said the use of arbitrary valuation methods contravene Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to which Nigeria is a signatory.

    He said the Customs and Excise Management (Amendment) Act No. 20 of 2003, provides that duty should be determined sequentially by reference to transaction, identical, similar value, computed, deductive and fall back methods.

    “The simple explanation of the provisions of Act No. 20 of 2003 is that duty on imported goods shall be based on value stated by the seller on the seller’s invoice, and such invoice is usually authenticated by the exporting countries’ chambers of commerce. This is the meaning of method one,” he said.

    Where there is a doubt about the value stated on the seller’s invoice, the duty, he said, could be determined by the value of identical goods from the same country of import and of the same quantity within a maximum time lag of three months.

    This sequential method, Alaka said, should continue where applicable until the last method is attained. He wondered why the NCS uses what may be described as “Benchmark method of valuation” of import or arbitrary method to determine the duty payable on such import.

    He said: “All that was done in many cases was to allot particular type of import of particular packing unit without reference to the invoice value of the seller from the country of import”. “So, every container is assessed at the same value or the Customs man may just apply his discretion as to what he feels the value of a particular import should be and then base the duty assessment on that discretion value.”

    This valuation method, he said, “adds to the high cost of doing business in our ports.”

    The lawyer chided the Customs for frustrating what he called “genuine complaints of over-assessment in matters of valuation”, describing it as a denial of justice to port users.

    According to him, Paragraph 13 of the 1st Schedule to, Act No. 20, 2003 , which mades the Comptroller-General of Customs a semi-final authority to adjudicate on all disagreements on valuation before a dissatisfied party goes to court. It envisages that disagreement over assessment of duty is a civil dispute that, should be settled amicably.

    He, by lawyer regretted that the Customs was frustrating the procedure denying. “Once an assessment is done, it is take it or leave.”

    He continued: “All forms of chicanery would be employed to frustrate genuine complaints of over assessment to duty, beginning from delay in attending to the complaint, to subtle threat of declaring the affected overtime cargo, with the unpleasant consequence of being lost to the government.”

  • Honour for The Nation man

    The maritime correspondent of The Nation Mr Oluwakemi Dauda has bagged the “Sterling Performing Journalist-Print” Award, organised by the management of The Quest Media Group, publishers of Trans Quest, a monthly magazine.

    He receiving the award during the Transport Development Symposium/Lecture/Transport Development ceremony (TDS/TDEA 2016), held penultimate Saturday, at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja.

    The theme of the event was: Transport/Maritime Sector, The pros and cons of the evolving change as it affects the revenue drive of the nation.

    The award letter to Dauda, signed by the organisers’ secretary, Segun Omisakin, said: “You have exemplified yourself in the area of your professional calling, journalism, over the years, especially in various aspects of reportage including the transport/maritime sector.

    “Notably, is your effervescent reporting of activities within the transport/maritime sector, especially as it relates to topical issues in the sector principally in the area of in-depth analysis and factual reporting are worthy of note as they are not only quite insightful, fulfilling and all-encompassing, but have proven your versatility and grasp of the sector. You have, over the years, in different fora demonstrated your vast knowledge in the above mentioned areas, thus, the need for this award by Quest Media Group.”

    The event, the organisers said, was also used to celebrate the consistency of the highly valued publications that have contributed positively to the development of the transport sector in the past nine years.

    The TDEA ceremony is a non-profit making yearly event, aimed at stimulating, encouraging and promoting excellence in the media.